Sol Sips, a tiny vegan restaurant hidden away in Bushwick, is popular with customers coming from all over New York City due to its homey atmosphere and affordable pricing.
“There is definitely a cultural aspect here,” Anisa Matthews laughs over her Chick’n Biscuit Sandwich. The most popular menu option, the sandwich includes fried mushrooms slathered in a fresh strawberry jam. Overhead, the speakers gently entrench the tiny space with RnB music while customers sip on cups of complementary lavender infused alkaline water, a glass pitcher placed atop all three tables. “You can see them making the food in the back, you can smell the kitchen, you see who they are,” she says. “It all reminds you of your aunts and your grandma making food in the kitchen.” Matthews travelled about 40 mins from Soho to eat at Sol Sips after hearing about it on Facebook. This is not uncommon, as the restaurant is frequented by customers from various ends of New York City, many of them having seen the restaurant on social media.
“I live quite far away, so I usually come on the weekends or if I get off of work early,” says Taylre Nwambuonwo. Her job alone is about a 30 minute train ride to the restaurant. Nwambuonwo encountered a post about the owner on Instagram, and since then has returned five times. “The food is great and it’s black owned and woman owned and I’d travel even further for that,” she says.
Opened in April 2017, Sol Sips was founded by 22-year-old college student Francesca Chaney. The young entrepreneur was raised by a vegan mother, and after moving out, she began living off of home-made fruit juices, eventually selling them, according to a profile done by Elle.com. Her endeavour became popular, and thus, Sol Sips was born. Located on 203 Wilson Ave., the menu contains various vegan dishes ranging from $8-$13 and freshly made fruit smoothies and juices, priced from $6.50-$9. The wellness community can be really classist,” Chaney told Essence. With her restaurant, where she is also the main cook, she seeks to make vegan meals more accessible to underprivileged communities.
One way this goal is achieved is through her sliding-scale brunch, offered every Tuesday and Saturday from 11am-4pm. With this option, customers pay whatever they can between $7-$15 dollars for select items from the menu
and a beverage.
“The sliding scale is what makes this restaurant more affordable than other vegan places,” says Tacha Joseph. A vegan of three years, she sees the diet as a healthier lifestyle. According to her, it is important that plant based eating becomes more common within the black community. “We need to watch our high blood pressure,” she exclaims. And this warning is not unsound. 75% of African Americans will have hypertension by the age of 55, with diet being a major contributing factor, according to HealthDay.com.
Taylre Nwambuonwo mirrors this sentiment. Also a vegan of three years, it was her mother’s battle with breast cancer that inspired her to transition to a plant based lifestyle. “I started to search the link between diet and illness and I found that the vegan diet was the best diet for optimal health.” Now pregnant, the soon-to-be mother says that Sol Sips provides her with the convenience of vegan options “that are healthy and readily available.”
And while a haven for vegans, Sol Sips also proves to be successful with those yearning to transition. In Anisa Matthews’s youth, her mother taught her the spiritual benefits of veganism. “If you eat a food product that was not treated right and in stress when it was killed then you’re consuming that trauma,” she explains. Now in her early twenties, one of the biggest difficulties for her in transitioning to veganism is planning on what to eat. But, after her experience at Sol Sips, the college student leaves inspired with many ideas. This is something the establishment encourages, with copies of the African American Vegan Starter Guide lying on the tables for purchase.
While customer’s sing Sol Sips praise for the quality of the food and the work it does for the community, there are always improvements to be made. Jammed into the small space are three tables and a total of nine seats (there is one additional table outside with three seats). The tiny kitchen is separated from the seating area by the order counter. There, employees hustle back and forth preparing the food and blending smoothies. While this tight spacing has no effects on cleanliness, Sol Sips maintains a grade A from the NYC Department of Health, the timeliness of the orders often fall through the cracks. A google search will heed complaints of slow service and wait times of over an hour.
This small spacing does not hinder Anisa Matthews in her enthusiasm for her newly discovered spot. “It makes it more intimate,” she claims. The one complaint she does have? “They could have a better way of getting food out than calling out my name,” she says. Sol Sips gets crowded fast, to the point that the line may spill out the door and trickle down the steps. After making an order, it is likely one may have to wait outside. “We also didn’t have any idea of how long the food would take.”
Miranda Rugova admires that Chaney “creates her food with the intention of healing.” Yet, Sol Sips can still improve. “One thing that stands out to me is the use of plastic,” she says. Complimentary water is served in plastic cups and while silverware is an option, plasticware is also offered. Rugova would like to see a swap to solely reusable utensils in order to lessen the amount of plastic waste. For her, “veganism is very intersectional, so it ties in very easily with the environment.”
Sources
Taylre Nwambuonwo
Tacha Joseph
Miranda Rugova
Anisa Matthews
Mili Mansaray 